Inspiration - Part 2

12 Day of Christmas Inspiration (and more):

1. dolectures.com - sign up newsletter 'Chicken Shed Chronicles'
2. The Do Lectures - like TedTalks
3. 99U.com - inspiration website
4. sethgodin.typepad.com - blog
5. Dessert Island Discs - podcast: 8 records they would take with them to a desert island
6. Malcolm (gladwell.com) - writer for the New Yorker. Book - Tipping Point
7. Martin Scorsese's Mum & Dad - Italianamerica (1974) film.
8. Medium.com - website
9. Waynemcgregor.com - british choreographer
10. Beautiful Losers - film
11. Leadership from a dancing guy - Youtube video
12. David Bowie - mix cloud.com 'The David Bowie Story' Documentary
13. Robert Crumb - Illustrator
14. Design Week & Creative Review - website
15. Cereal Mag, Wallpaper Mag, Eye, Monocle - website
16. Fantastic Man, Gentle Woman, Computer Arts - website/mag
17. Big Active - company/curators
18. Art & Commers - photographers/designer
19. Nowness - videos/website
20. Stack Magazines - different magazine every month

Inspiration - Part 1

My inspirations:
Old films - cinematography
Wes anderson
Gerhard Richter
Astronomy - NASA
Torkil Gudnason - Electric Bloom
Hubert Fisher - Parabolika
Harry Potter
Damien Hirst
Ben Howard - Depth over distance
Robert Frost - Fire and Ice

Things to look at:
Book - Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon
Ted Talk - Austin Kleon
'The Samples of Kanye' on Youtube

Jo Blaker - Visiting Professional

Jo Blaker came in to speak to us about her work and her creative process. Some of the things she said that stuck out to me where:
"Don't worry about the labels"
"Looking, observing and noticing is how a creative process starts"
"You can naturally be very visual, or you can develop it by starting to look around you for things that interest you and collecting them"
"If you get bored, try a new material - it usually opens things up for me"
"Get away from the idea that you're sketchbook is for an audience - it's for you"

 

Her way of working is hugely based on collecting and documenting things she is intrigued about. She does this mainly through observation drawings and sketches.
Personally, I don't feel confident with realistic observation drawing, I find it slightly of a chore and never feel as if it has been successful. However, I am passionate about collage, scrapbooking and abstract drawing. I realise my sketchbook work does not have to be like Jo Blaker's, because there is no right or wrong way to collect and document information. That is why I can easily incorporate what I am passionate about and apply it to a sketchbook.

Self Branding

Key Elements of Self Branding:

1. word association
2. purpose/focus
3. audience
4. tone of voice
5. imagery
6. colours
7. methods

1. Word Associations: loud, obnoxious, pretentious, goofy, braggy, lithuanian croydoner, boss ass bitch, characterful, jolly, happy, giving, neat, versatile, decorative, mother figure, leader, goes the extra mile

2. Purpose/Focus: happiness, excitement, experience, trying new things, self-development, no regrets, freedom, independence, having an impact, doing great things but staying grounded, never forgetting your roots/where you came from, staying humble, coming out of your comfort zone, curious, being sociable/well connected, a networker

Brand Nu Studio - Radim Malinic - Visting Professional

Everything is a work in progress

“As a person I am made up of three elements - inspiration, influence and information”

Inspiration - Colour: meaning, colour, perception, understanding, subjective, scientific

Influence - Expierience: life, food, travel, product design, technology, surfing

Information - Science: neuroscience, psychology, behavioural economics, physics, anthropology, biology

“How I approach every new project - I call it Process 101”

Search -> Direction -> Skills & Knowledge -> Design -> Information -> Meaning -> Making Ideas Happen

Search: the art of asking questions and looking for answers. Wants & Needs. Creating an “engine” - something that will get you from A to Z. 

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses” - founder of the car.

Direction: the difference between good, great and amazing. First idea & the opposite of the obvious. Trend, fashion and style. 

Skills & Knowledge: the point of difference. Surprise - doing the same thing over and over again will not get you very far. Extra skills and an extra edge. 

Design: illustration, digital art, photography, retouching, typography, lettering, 3d design, 3d modelling, branding, web design, coding, development, copywriting

Whatever fascinates you & interests you, give it a try. 

Information: You need to know more than just graphic design. 

Meaning: creative work made for the right reasons, to stay. It’s okay yo make less, if it hold more meaning.

“well - how often do you get to say that everyday you turn dust into gold?”

Making Ideas Happen: having the privilege to act on the moment of inspiration - wherever, whenever. 

“Miracles can happen on any size wave.” 

“When you ask yourself why you’re doing you’re thing, take the answer and multiply it by ten.”

Time

Trust + Balance + Purpose + Culture + Happiness = The Future of Work

Task: List what you WANT to do and what you NEED to do in the upcoming week:

WANT 

Go to Bonfire Night

Hang out with friends

Start reading a new book

Scrapbook

Skype my mom

Have a movie night

Go on holiday in the summer

Bake cupcakes

NEED

Blogging

Design Boards

Idea Development for Brief 2

Laudry

Vacuum my room

Essay research 

Get my vaccination

Task: Create a week plan.

Stress

Book - The Stress Report - The Do Lectures

Book - Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear - Elizabeth Gilbert

Book - Deep Work - Rules for focused success in a distracted world - Cal Newport

Upworthy Article - "This school replaced detention with meditation. The results are stunning.”

Task - Questions.

What was surprising?

 A lot of the negative thoughts were about appearance. It’s a bit selfish, you shouldn’t have to focus about yourself too much. Societies standards nowadays affect this.

Some of the answers were very vague like “i’m not good enough” - but what is it that they feel they’re not good enough for/about? There's nothing wrong with bettering and improving yourself, but you should know what it is and start working on it instead of just acknowledging it. 

De-stressing was mostly escapism - like watching netflix or films (wasting time) and not getting anything done at all will not help. You should make a list - de-stress by planning ahead. 

Task - Haiku's.

Who would it be for? What form would it take? 

For freshers students - part of a freshers pack. a little book/leaflet - do’s and don’t.

Have the ‘do’ solution next to the ‘don’t’ negative haiku - turning the negatives into positives/ flip the thinking. Lenticular postcards/ things with two sides.

Offset Sheffield

Studio Lauckie Siebein
- "The design process is easy, if the brief and the idea is strong."
- Futura, Helvetica, Gill Sans are their main typefaces.
- They do not describe the design, they create a good story. Some designs are good not for their content, but because of the story it tells.
- "You have to work hard for the identity of your company or product."
- "We don't believe that identity is something given by God."
- "We believe that nothing is beautiful until you explain why it's beautiful."
- "There is a need for transparency, complexity and layering."

Steve Simpson
- Being 27/28 years old he decided he doesn't want to be an art director anymore. He wanted to draw more. It is never too late to quit and change jobs.
- He needed to figure out his style, as he felt that all other illustrators had one.
- He started to collect a book of things he really liked, a book of things that started to inspire him.
- Design is about creating stuff that works. it's not just about having all the elements. It's about putting them together too.
- He feels like things nowadays are mainly done for function, that people don't make things look nice just for the pleasure of it anymore.
- "Take every aspect of the design and make it yours".

Moving Brands
- Design has become too "squeaky pants", it's now really refined, smooth and slick.
- Design is a messy process that ends up beautiful. It needs to be equally right and wrong.
- They create 'Mood Films', which they take into a pitch to show the mood they are envisioning for the designs they are to propose (They use found footage).
- "Be playful and seemingly pointless."
- "Embrace collaboration, ley clients get messy."
- "Make new brushes to paint with, create your own tools."
- "Be unapologetically experimental. Be beautiful."

MPC - Visual Effects Studio
- Film, Creative & Advertising.
- Adidas 'Boss Everyone' Campaign. After spending many years attempting to polish and refine the digital effect techniques, and make them realistic, it was something quite refreshing and weird to go back to the "meme" style and to reduce the 'frames per second' to create less-realistic and glitchy effects. Going back to the old-school effects.

Pentagram
- You can push existing letters and ligatures into simplicity, whilst still maintaining legibility and understanding.
- Technology is something to play with, to hack into and to open up, something to not just be consumed.
- Science-fiction paints a picture of the future, sometimes it's completely impossible and the other times it can be almost realistic. It doesn't predict the future, but it forces it's hand. It can inspire and motivate people to reach for it.

Laura Carlin
- Your childhood frames who you are as an artist, it influences you and starts to define you from an early age.
- "Style means emitting everything that isn't important."
- Portfolio Society. Great for Illustrators. They re-make classic books and commission different style illustrators every time.

Identity

1. Identify 5 reasons you chose to study Graphic Design.

- In my foundation I discovered that Graphic Design was something I enjoyed and was good at.

- I liked the freedom to explore different materials and processes.

- I liked the idea of a potential of financial stability. 

- I am very sociable and enjoy talking and working with others.

- I find it fun to create Graphic Design and feel very proud of successfully finished work.

2. Identify 5 things you want to learn on this course.

- How to successfully use digital software.

- What kind of designer I am and what is my style.

- How to grow my clientele. 

- How to create appropriate grid/layout work.

- New and unconventional ways to generate work.

3. Identify 5 skills you see as strengths as of now.

- My confidence

- My analogue craft skills.

- My generation of strong ideas. 

- My enthusiasm

- My social skills.

4. Identify 5 methods you can use to evaluate/document your progress.

- PPP blog.

- Sketchbooks

- Peer and tutor feedback

- Instagram account

- Personal blog.

5. Identify 5 things that really inspire you.

- Fine art & paint.

- Astronomy

- Collage

- Other designers work.

- Peer work.

Task - In groups of 4/5, discuss and list words that you see as describing each other. Consider what you write and be honest. Try to gain as many words from the whole of your group.

This will give you an ‘external' view of how you are potentially perceived  This may inform you of your ‘identity’ and can inform how you can manifest a personal identity.

Words I received:

Loud, Outspoken, Confident, Funny, Silly, Crazy, Friendly, Bubbly, Bossy, Characterful, Unique, One of a Kind, Dancy, Nice, Jokes, Sociable, Hard Working, Bold, Approachable, Enthusiastic, Sophisticated, Student Rep, Londoner, Talkative, Outgoing, Easy to talk to, Happy, Funky, Snazzy, Host, Cool.

Tutor Tips

Penny Lee:

• network
• get out of your comfort zone
• work with your friends
• go to industry talks
• visit places, meet people
• do work that interests you
• dont be passive, be active

John Watters:

• take every opportunity, never say no
• don’t stick to just digital
• focus on your work
• if stuck/struggling, change scenery
• if you want to do something, just do it
• reach and connect with the creative industry